Heirs of the Magi News Flash!

***Heirs of the Magi News Flash!*** Here in our magical little corner of the world, summer has ended and while Ethan, Ehlana, and their cousins and friends are back at school; most parents will enjoy the daily breaks while their work and play will transition into the normal fall schedules. Cassie and Michael will be getting ready for their fall work trip; and the adventures will continue in big and small ways as we head into the autumn months of 2026. We will have all of those stories for you; so... ...Visit Witch Falls often to keep up with all of our latest adventures; and happy reading!

Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - April 14, 2020


Ehlana and Ethan:

It’s been another cool day for the weather; so we studied and worked again – at Naomi’s for the morning lessons and assignments; at the lab or archives all afternoon; and in the lounge after dinner for the ‘real’ lessons and a music practice.

Instead of writing more on any of that; we’re going to comment on coronavirus news.

For here at home, while we still don’t have a first local case; the shutdowns and home schooling will officially continue into May, and if we go back to school at all before the end of the school year; it will likely only be for final exams and tests.  School trips aren’t a major thing at our school, but the senior class trip has been cancelled; and all sports for the rest of the school year – including any travel for games – is out now too.  Those choices are tough for some business owners, but the online versions of those stores are being supported; and the employees that are temporarily out of those jobs are being kept busy with other work instead.

On a side-note; the coronavirus problems aren’t really as important right now to a lot of people as the freezing temperatures at night; since that’s a problem that could put some spring planting and crops at risk.  Thanks to the lab, that isn’t a problem for our crops – including the plants for the cold cure, but that doesn’t help with most vegetable or fruit crops; so the farmers are very busy trying to do what they can to protect their fields and orchards.

Moving on to the national level for the coronavirus crisis, we passed six-hundred-thousand confirmed cases today and exceeded twenty-five-thousand deaths – a big percentage of the worldwide totals that are about two million for cases and one-hundred and twenty-five thousand deaths.  We don’t want to comment on the battle going on between all sides of the health, economic, and political viewpoints and agendas of others, but we are very tired of the attempts to both downplay and overstate the statistics.  Anyone capable of caring for their fellow humans should simply get together and help in whatever way they can when we know for sure that millions are sick with this virus; tens of thousands have died from it; and all of those people directly impact the lives of the millions of friends and family members in need of support too.  As far as we’re concerned, everyone that is focused on personal gain for any reason from this crisis may as well be working directly for the Hathornes or any other Dark Magi – and we know for sure that the Hathornes are using the crisis to gain more power and wealth while trying to hurt more people too.

Yes, Mom and others are trying to counter them through the family business, but there is always a lot of bad going on in the world; and we can’t stop it all – yet.

Okay, we don’t want to rant on all night; so let’s wrap this up.

Contrary to many news reports and estimates; we’re sure that this crisis will be with us for much longer than most people expect.  That insight is partly thanks to the research we’ve done so far on the virus – along with keeping track of what is happening around the world.  The seriousness of the crisis will change as we go along, but as we’ve already seen; improvements in some places will be off-set by worsening problems elsewhere.  That will also roll around the world in waves; which is why we expect another wave of the virus to come around next fall – whether our situation improves during the summer or not.

Finally, we’d likely scare some readers if our journals were immediately available to all Magi, but you’re reading this in the future; and will be able to judge for yourself whether this last bit of information proved accurate – a fact that we don’t know; since our research is still in the very early stages.

There are a few things that we’re seeing signs of with this virus that are concerning.  First on that list is that Covid-19 may attack the immunity system as well as the respiratory track – in a way that’s similar to HIV.  If that proves true; then recovered patients might be immune-compromised instead of gaining immunity to this coronavirus.  We’re also seeing the potential for longer-term recovery issues including potential damage to the lungs, heart, and liver.  It will take years of study to know how long those problems might persist for those patients; and that could be a healthcare issue if millions of people need ongoing treatment lasting months or more.  Finally, there could be problems affecting the nervous system, but it is too-soon to have any really good data on that; so it will be another longer-term potential effect of the virus that will need to be studied.

That’s more than enough scary for one update; so we won’t get into any of the other potential issues tonight; wrap this up; and go get some sleep.  WE have had a good day even when our work has been a bit on the serious side; and we will always be grateful for our family, friends, and all of the blessings we have here in our amazing home and town.

This is Ehlana and Ethan Proctor; live from the hidden home of the Magi of the Light – and May the Magi Force be with you!

Monday, April 13, 2020

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - April 13, 2020


Ehlana and Ethan:

It feels as though winter returned to town today; and that cold weather is going to stay with us for a day or three.  That had everything to do with Uncle Blaine and Aunt Alison deciding to head for home today – though Uncle Blaine went to Crystal Springs with Dad to have a meeting with Uncle Terry about the galleria remodel; and then Aunt Alison picked him up on the way home – once our cousins had time to download their assignments for the day and they could get packed up and ready to go.  We said goodbye to them during a break from our online lessons and studies; and that was easy to do because we worked at Naomi’s house this morning.  Our Aunt and cousins headed out in time to be in the city for lunch with Uncle Blaine; so after we had lunch with Naomi’s Dad and brother; going to play at the lab was an option – especially since it didn’t really warm up very much today anyway; and we didn’t want to go biking when it was both wet and cold.

Our lab or archives time was fun – in part because Naomi and Aiden opted to hang out with us too.  We worked or played until near-dinnertime; split up for the rest of the night; and had dinner with our own families.  Since dinner – which Dad made it home in time to do with us, the parents worked in the office, the collegians continued their studying, and we did our work in the lounge before wrapping up the day with a music practice.  That’s all we have for today, and we’re going to save up the local and world Coronavirus news for another night because we’re ready to call it a night and get some sleep.

We’ll also skip writing anything about why Mom and Dad are so happy to not be spending a week apart this month!  There are some things that kids just don’t need to even think about when it comes to their parents. ;^)

This is Ehlana and Ethan Proctor; live from the hidden home of the Magi of the Light – and May the Magi Force be with you!

Sunday, April 12, 2020

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - April 12, 2020


Happy Easter, Everyone!

Ehlana and Ethan:

As with a lot of things we’ve been dealing with over the past few weeks, just offering a happy Easter to anyone seems strange during a pandemic; and stranger-still to celebrate while not being able to do that with our entire family.

Tai Chi was indoors thanks to the rain overnight, but while we had some more rain today; we were able to spend a few hours outdoors too – though we didn’t do very much other than another bike ride; since everything stayed wet or damp all day – especially in the woods at the park.  We didn’t have most of our usual Easter fun at church, but we had something of a service at home that included the Pastor’s message and an Easter teen music video that was edited together by Rowen and Patrick with the teen praise team recording their parts at home – including the instrumental tracks.  We followed that up with a pancake breakfast that was good, but not the same as with the bigger groups at church; and then the rest of our day has been fairly quiet.  We did some work or studying around the house until lunchtime; had a snack for that meal; and then some of us moved on to the biking and some socially-distanced visits with friends, family, and neighbors.

Naomi and Aiden spent an hour with us, but were busy with their families today – or at least with them; since none of us were really very busy.  We had a late-afternoon Easter dinner, but only had seven for that meal – with Grandma and Grandpa joining us while Cassie and Michael were with his family.  Cassie didn’t pick that option just for the gourmet food menu – though that was a bonus for them!  We helped with the work before and after dinner; watched a movie; and had a music practice that Cassie and Michael joined in on while also doing lessons with us.  Now we’re ready for bed; and doing that early because Dad’s going to do a day trip to the city tomorrow.

He won’t be there for the week because all non-critical court sessions are currently stopped, but he can still deal with some meetings, paperwork filings, and contract signings; so he’ll do that work and then come home again tomorrow night.  We’ll see when the lockdowns are lifted whether he’ll need to do extra trips to the city, but if that happens; it’ll likely be something that’ll happen months from now; since the legal backlog is already an issue.

That’s all for tonight.  Our Easter didn’t end up being as exciting as we’d hoped, and we haven’t even spent as much time with our visiting cousins as we’d expected.  They are still here, but will be going home either tomorrow or Tuesday; depending on when Uncle Blaine finishes up the work he’s doing to get ready for designing the galleria remodel.  This job is actually quite a challenge because he’s dealing with old buildings and structurally-difficult modifications, but he is brilliant; and will get the job done with help from Uncle Terry.

Okay, that’s more info than we’d planned on including tonight, and we really do want to get some sleep even though Dad won’t be leaving quite as early as normal in the morning; so we’ll get to that – and be ready to resume our home schooling again in the morning.

This is Ehlana and Ethan Proctor; live from the hidden home of the Magi of the Light – and May the Magi Force be with you!

Saturday, April 11, 2020

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - April 11, 2020


Happy 23rd Birthday, Caleb Palmer!

Ehlana and Ethan:

Cassie and Michael had a gift for Caleb, but that was our only involvement in his special day.

He wouldn’t have been excited about the Easter Egg Hunt at the park on his birthday – or disappointed that it was cancelled, but while all of the kids were sad about that, the parents and grandparents in charge of that event had a back-up plan that included a draw for the prizes that all kids were automatically entered into; those prizes were delivered this morning; and boxes or baskets of treats were dropped off for every kid.  All of that was done with social distancing and protection for everyone involved too; so even though our risks for catching the virus here are still very low; we continue to make sure that we don’t draw any unwanted attention to our little town.

We won a small prize each along with our treats, but without that event to keep busy with all morning; spring chores work replaced it for us through until we stopped for a late lunch.  That wasn’t very exciting or newsworthy, but the weather was nice; and we still had fun while doing that work with our favorite parents and collegians.  Biking and wandering around town or the park is getting a bit repetitive, but that’s what we did for a few hours after lunch; and it was great to enjoy another warm day – especially since we have some rain and thunderstorms in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow.

With Easter to look forward to in the morning, no sleepovers were booked, so while we spent time with Naomi and Aiden today; we were all at our own homes in time for dinner; and it has been quiet around here tonight – mostly because five of us opted to either study or work in the office.  We opted for music play time and a movie; followed that up with bath or Jacuzzi time; and now we’re ready to get some sleep so the Easter Bunny won’t skip our house tonight!

This really has proved to be a quiet, unusually holiday weekend, and with no Easter services or the pancake breakfast at church tomorrow; that trend will continue.  We really miss the big-family time; wish we could have done a ranch trail ride with the weather so nice today; and we’ll miss all of the usual Easter Sunday fun too – including the family dinner we won’t be able to do with everyone.  We are all still healthy and well, though, so we can’t or shouldn’t complain about anything when we really are blessed with so much love and happiness in our lives.

Maybe that’s something that a lot of people will be able to remember this weekend; and we’ll also try to keep helping everyone we can through the family business through the tough times they are dealing with now in pretty much every country in the world.

This is Ehlana and Ethan Proctor; live from the hidden home of the Magi of the Light – and May the Magi Force be with you!

Friday, April 10, 2020

Ehlana's and Ethan's Journals - April 10, 2020


Ehlana and Ethan:

This really has been an unusual start to a holiday weekend for us – and not because of the somber tone to it that usually goes along with Good Friday each year.

We don’t really have any news to write about as we’re doing this early update ahead of dinner – and we don’t really have any plans for tonight either.  It was cold this morning, so Tai Chi was by the river; we didn’t have to hurry to get ready for a church service, so breakfast was casual and we took our time with that meal; and then the rest of our morning included an online Good Friday message from Pastor John and some studying or work in the office.  We had a light lunch; and then we went outside for some biking and fresh air.  Mom and Dad joined us for that, and we had fun, but we also kept our distance from pretty much everyone else that was out and on the trails or at the park too.  We didn’t spend much time with Naomi and Aiden – mostly because they were busy with their own families; and we didn’t hang out with them instead because they were each spending time with their own extended families.

Yes, that seems weird with the social distancing, but just as our family has gotten together while still at a distance between the smaller groups; our neighbors are figuring out how to do the same.

We got home from that bike ride and play time a half-hour or so ago, and we’re doing this now because we have some time to waste until dinner without really having anything to do.  There won’t likely be any news for the rest of our day, since we’ll likely watch a movie after dinner; and then just go to bed early.  Tomorrow will hopefully be a bit more entertaining, and it is supposed to be warmer again at least for one day, but we could get some rain too; so we’ll have to wait and see what happens.  That really is all we have for now, though, so we’ll wrap this up; and get on with the rest of our uneventful day!

This is Ehlana and Ethan Proctor; live from the hidden home of the Magi of the Light – and May the Magi Force be with you!